Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it but to enable it.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In light of recent tragic events, I am focusing some posts on bullying. So, for today here is an article on workplace bullying.

The Silent Epidemic: Workplace Bullying

I am fortunate to work in an environment where I am not exposed to workplace bullying, but it is a real concern for many.

When reading Information Overload and What You Can Do About It
I found the statistic interesting that knowledge workers spend less than 5% of the day on thought and reflection. That is about 20 minutes. Some days that feels very accurate. It can be hard dealing with constant interruptions. It makes you wonder what the designer of cubicles was thinking. I couldn’t imagine getting any work done if I had to work in that kind of environment.

If you’ve been in the workplace for any period of time you’ve probably asked yourself:

Why Do Bad Leaders Always Seem to Win?

In my opinion bad leaders are one of the most damaging things that can happen to an organization.

Another interesting article: 5 Leadership (and Life) Lessons You Learn From Your Kids

Very good points, something to consider.

I found The Five Pillars of Workplace Happiness to be an interesting article.

Here’s my take on each Pillar:

Meaning: Working in Higher Education, personally I find great meaning in my job. If someone uses a smart classroom or a computer lab they see the results of my work. It is a good feeling to be able to enable someone to get an education.

Enagement: For the most part I am able to get into a “flow” at my job.

Accomplishment: I achieve goals often at work, although a little more positive recognition would be nice.

Relationships: I enjoy working with my colleagues.

Positive Emotion: This is the hardest on the list. I am a very optimistic person, and often keep a positive attitude. However, I work in a very ugly, dark, window-less environment. Sometimes, especially in the winter, it is very depressing walking into that building. However, I recently moved to a new office and although I still don’t have a window my space is very nice and significantly nicer to work in than my old office.

Here is an article I found very interesting: Bosses who blame

Here is a good article on How to Get the Respect You Deserve at Work

You’ll want to read the whole article, but here are the bullet points:

• Don’t care so much. Seriously.
• Never miss a deadline. Ever.
• Never be late to an appointment. Ever.
• Don’t gossip. Especially over email.
• Don’t waste anyone’s time, but sometimes allow your superiors to waste yours.
• Treat those “underneath” you well.
• Dress like you’re going to ask for a raise. Every day.
• Know when to shut up, especially when you’re in a group.
• Keep your workspace clean.
• Don’t ever get drunk at a work gathering. Ever.
• And finally: Sing when it’s someone’s birthday. With gusto.

Personally, I find some of these easier to do than others. I can completely understand the ones about deadlines and being on time. I find it very rude when people ignore deadlines or show up late. And while we shouldn’t judge by appearances, dressing nicely and keeping a neat workspace do portray a better image.

Be a Coach, Not a Critic

It is important to realize that regular feedback given in a non-critical manner is beneficial to all.

In Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss they ranked the 8 traits important to management and technical expertise ranked dead last.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. Management and Leadership are about people not technology.